How to form MASCULINE and FEMININE in Italian

In Italian, there are two genders: MASCULINE and FEMININE.

Generally, for the animated beings the grammatical gender is determined by their own gender (if it’s a woman, the gender will be feminine; if it’s a man, the gender will be masculine: il postino, la postina → the postman, the postwoman). For the non-animated things, instead, the gender is conventional and it has to be learnt as it is (il cioccolato, la schiuma → the chocolate, the foam).

A belief became widespread: that the nouns ending with-a are feminine, while those ending with -o are masculine. That’s true in many cases, BUT NOT ALWAYS!

It can be done in many different ways. The most frequent and natural way is to replace the ending of the masculine with -a: il pensionato, la pensionata (the retired man, the retired woman)/ il gatto, la gatta (the male cat, the female cat). But it is not always so easy!

Sometimes, for example, the feminine is formed by adding the suffix -essa:

Professore → Professoressa (professor)

Poeta → Poetessa (poet – poetess)

Principe → Principessa (prince – princess)

Leone → Leonessa (lion – lioness)

Studente → Studentessa (student)

Conte → Contessa (count – countess)

Barone → Baronessa (baron – baroness)

Dottore → Dottoressa (doctor)

Except for this last one, the masculine nouns ending with -tore form the feminine with-trice:

Attore → Attrice (actor – actress)

Imprenditore →Imprenditrice (businessman – businesswoman)

Lettore → Lettrice (lecturer)

Pittore → Pittrice (painter)

Traduttore → Traduttrice (translator)

Few nouns, instead, form the feminine with -ina:

Eroe → Eroina (hero – heroine)

Gallo → Gallina (rooster – hen)

Re → Regina (king – queen)

Zar → Zarina (Tsar)

BE CAREFUL! Don’t forget that, in Italian, there are also the so-called common gender nouns, that is those nouns that never change according to the gender: in this case, articles and adjectives play an important role in order to understand if it’s a man or a woman (because they must agree to the gender)!